Key Features:
Page Count: 99
Questionnaire is Included
Abstract:
This study undertook a critical analysis of the impact of broadcast media in increasing citizen’s participation in election in Nigeria. This is with a view of finding out if effect media broadcast and awareness strategies could be used to arrest the low citizen participation in Nigeria. The study relied on opinion survey technique of questionnaire administration in gathering data, which were analyzed in simple percentage variable. The sample size was statistically determined while the study area is Rivers State. Again, this study assesses the impact of broadcast media in mobilizing the masses for peaceful election in Rivers State. Also, assess the press as having operated more as player than as neutral reporters or informants that sensitize the masses on political events. The lessons one should learn are the problem that hamper peaceful election all this while in Nigeria, Rivers State to be precise. The solutions to these problems and the important roles of the broadcast media for mobilizing the masses for peaceful election are also stated. A 17-item structured questionnaire was used to investigate the impact of Broadcast Media in increasing citizen’s participation in election in Nigeria (case study of 2017 Re-run Election). From an estimated population of citizens, a sample of 500 subjects was drawn for the survey research. Findings show, among other things that, It is self-evident that democracy, usually defined as government by consent, is crucially dependent on a sufficient degree of two-way communication and horizontal communication at the grassroots, otherwise there cannot be consensus building and responsiveness. Consequently, the study recommends fair reportage and coverage of all political interests, factions and parties in an objective and constructive manner to reduce tension and promote peace and that equal access be availed candidates in the quality of broadcast contents to prevent imbalances in the information dissemination process by aspiring for completeness, accuracy and full information to help place the masses on a better pedestal for making informed, electoral/voting decisions.
Table of Content:
TABLE OF CONTENT
Page
COVER PAGE …………………………………………………………..... i.
TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………….……ii.
DECLARATION PAGE ………………………….…..………………..… .iii.
APPROVAL PAGE …………………………….…….……………….…...iv.
DEDICATION …………………..………………….….…………………...v.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………………………………..…………………vi.
TABLE OF CONTENT ………………………….…………………………vii.
LIST OF TABLAS ………………………………….……………….…...…x.
ABSTRACT ………..………………………………….…………..…….....xi.
CHAPTER ONE:
1.1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………….………..1
1.2 Background of the Study ………………….………………………...….5
1.3 Statement of the Problem …………………………………………...….9
1.4 Objective of the Study ………………………………………….……....11
1.5 Research Questions…………………………………………….....…...12
1.7 Significance of the Study…………………………………….…..........12
1.8 Research Hypothesis…………………………………………..…........13
1.9 Scope of the Study…………………………………………….….…….14
1.10 Operational definition of Terms……………………………………..…14
CHAPTER TWO:
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE.
2.1 Theoretical framework…………………………………………………16
2.2 Review of Related Literature………………………………………...…17
2.2.1 Source of Literature…………………………………………………...17
2.2.2 The Review…………………………………………………………....18
CHAPTER THREE:
METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………….….....37
Validation of the Instrument………………………………………………..…38
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
Description of respondents location…………………………………………..39
Description of respondents’ literacy level…………………………..……….40
Description of respondents’ party membership……………………………...41
Responses of Respondent………………………………………………….…41
Analysis of Responses ……………………………………………………….43
Literacy level of respondents…………………………………………..........44
Descriptive statistics of no/low skilled respondents……………………….46
Descriptive statistics of non-party member respondents…………………48
Descriptive statistics of the responses of respondents based on location………………………………………………………………………...50
Relationship between Exposures to broadcast media And Political Participation…………………………..……………………………………...52
Major Finding………………………………………………………………...57
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary………………………………………………………………………60
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….61
Recommendations……………………………………………………………62
Limitation of the study……………………………………………………….64
Suggestion for further research……………………………………………65
REFERENCE
Appendix A
Appendix B
Introduction:
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Citizen’s participation is at the heart of democracy. Indeed, democracy is unthinkable without the ability of citizens to participate freely in the governing process. Through their activity, citizens in a democracy seek to control who will hold public office and to influence what the government does. Political participation provides the mechanism by which citizens can communicate information about their interests, preferences and needs and generate pressure to respond.
Voice and equality are central to democratic participation. In a meaningful democracy, the peoples’ voice must be clear and loud- clear so that policy makers understand citizens concerns and loud so that they have an incentive to pay attention to what is said. Since democracy implies not only governmental responsiveness to citizens interest but also equal consideration of the interest of each citizens, democratic participation must also be equal.
No democratic nation- certainly not Nigeria- lives up to the ideal participatory equality. Some citizens are active; they vote or engage in more demanding form of participation. Others are not. In fact, a good number of Nigeria undertakes no other political activity aside from going to the polls. In addition, those who do take part are in critical ways not representative of the citizenry as a whole. They differ in their social characteristics and in their preferences, needs and priorities.
In consequence, the voice of the people as expressed through participation comes from limited and unrepresentative sets of citizens. The democratic ideal may be equal consideration for the needs and preferences for all, but the reality of participation is quite different.
In every society, from the most primitive to the most complex, the communication system performs four broad tasks Harold lasswell (1949) had defined three of these as, surveillance of the environment, correlation of the components of society in responding to the environment and transmission of social heritage Wilbur Schramm (1954) has use the simple terms, “watcher. Forum, teacher and entertainment” every society has its watchers who provide other members with information and interpretation of events, they survey the environment and report on possible threats and dangers as well as good of bad omens approaching it from the fundamentals a watcher may be the teacher who complains or observed foreign tendencies of younger generation, or an opinion leader who tries to explain situations and trends of occurrence in a given environment. Whichever the case a group of people, who live together, require an identifiable means through which to relate with each other, discussing and sharing meanings with one another. This is where the role of communication comes in. Communication serves as the vehicle through which different segment of people relate with each other. Society relies on communicating systems as a teacher to pass institutionalized patterns to all members as acceptable norms and ways of conduct adopted as standard approach to its aims and objectives. Communication systems are a force for bringing about information that is expected to transform people’s approaches to issues, irrespective of their personality. It is assumed that, the dominant pattern of behavior accepted by a large number of people in society depend on the information process by the mass media. The spiral of silence theory propounded by Noelle-Neumann between (1971 and 1973) maintains that, “individuals receive information from two sources, personal observation and the media. According to Anaeto, Onabajo and Osifeso (2003), “ the theory concerns the interplay among four elements; mass media, interpersonal communication and social relations, individual expression of opinions and perceptions which individuals have of the surrounding climate of opinion in their own social environment” this comment under scores, the Pretoria of organized structures of society in which the various element in society interrelate, that is the institutions in which different members of society have to subscribe to as they relate with one another. Bierstedt (1970) in Oshaikphai States that; an institution is an organized system of social relationships which embodies certain common values and procedures and meets certain basic needs of society. The word values as used here refer to shared ideas and goals through common procedures or standards that the group follows and as a system of relationships. The group enormously identifies a network o roles and statues to adhere to and this forms the social relationships through which their acts are assessed. According to Oshaekphai (2003) there are five most basic important institutions in complex societies, family, religions governmental, economic, and educational institutions. In recent times science has been added because of the important place of science in modern society.
He further explained that:
Institutionalization is processes which emerge as unplanned products of living in groups as they sought practical ways of meeting their needs. They find some patterns which gets better through repetition into standardized customs.
From this comments it is clear that, what communication does is, to identify this institutions within society and mobilize different segments or members of society to participate in them. This way communication is able to correlate different components of society, through constant presentation, or reputation the media is able to enlighten, educate and inform members of society. Invariably what this means is that, for the different institutions to interplay with one another effectively there must be mass communication. In other words mass communication stands at the center of this institutional relationship. Through effective mass communication, various institutions are able to learn about the activities of others and how these activities intermingle. However in other to achieve effective mass communication, the following communication strategy comes readily to mind and some of them are, the print, and the broadcast media. This paper limits its scope to, the broadcast media and its relevance in democracies in the Nigeria context.
Broadcast media refers to the use of electrical impulse to transmit voice or visual messages to a large audience. The broadcast media has an enormous power to inform, enlighten and or educate a large audience at the same time.
The broadcast media are a very powerful instrument for mass mobilization. They are capable of making things, they can make or destroy, they can be used as instruments to instigate war under certain conditions or even foster peace initiatives; they can promote or hinder development. As one of the major components of mass communication, the Broadcast media have been very instrumental to the success or otherwise of democracy in Nigeria.
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